Singing and Playing: A How-To Guide for Independence for Bass Players

Singing and playing bass

Q: I have great vocal chops, which I exercise frequently in my alter ego solo acoustic guitarist thing. I play bass in a blues/R&B band and have the best vocal talent in the band. But I can’t sing over a bass line to save my behind. Can this be learned? Any tips?

A: Keep in mind that I am one who has never sang a note and, whenever I try, I quickly decide that I’ve done the world a good deed by not singing.

However, it sounds to me that this is a question of independence. Independence of any kind simply takes some thoughtful exercising compounded with time and patience.

Just like a drummer needs to gain limb independence (hands and feet) – and we as bassists need to gain independence of fingers (left hand fingerings and right hand plucking patterns) – a singing musicians needs to be able to separate his voice from his hands as well. In other words: separate the part of the brain focusing on the lyrics and phrasing from the part of the brain focusing on playing a line.

As with any independence exercise, I would start slowly.

Here’s a checklist to get you started:

  1. Start simply. Pick a tune you know well vocally and then try to just play quarter notes through the tune. Stick to root notes at first, and start upping the ante as you progress and include other notes in your bass line.
  2. Pick a song with a simple ostinato pattern that doesn’t move around at all. Start with one key. You can just focus on one section of the song at a time, if necessary.
  3. See if you can start singing the melody while maintaining a solid ostinato. There may be phrases that are easier to play in tandem than others. You should isolate these and learn them one by one… slowly. Then, piece the song together like a puzzle, always stopping when necessary to work a phrase out.
  4. Pick a handful of tunes to learn one by one and work them all up slowly (“Message in a Bottle”, anyone?) These songs don’t have to be ones in which the actual artist sang and played simultaneously, but do find songs that will push the envelope of your abilities while not being completely outside of your realm of possibility (so as to not get frustrated and quit. Perhaps skip over the Geddy Lee stuff for a bit. We need to allow ourselves little victories to inspire further development.)
  5. Write down the rhythms of the vocal melody against the bass line and see how they intertwine. Or, you could record both of them separately and meld them. Listen repeatedly and focus on how they intertwine. Internalize it and try again.

At first (and for quite some time) you will probably want to have a specific pattern you play on the bass while you are singing but, eventually, you could practice improvising over a tune while singing the melody.

Check out this video of Raul Midon practicing playing “Giant Steps” while singing unison, harmonizing, and doing both independently of each other! He explains how this developed for himself quite nicely… and then proceeds to blow your mind.

This will not come quickly, but as you master your respective instruments (voice and bass) and continue to push your limits on both (in tandem and independent of each other), it will slowly become more and more natural for you.

As with all things, all it takes is time and determination (and not just practicing but practicing well)!

Readers, what have you done to develop your singing and playing? Tell us about it in the comments!

Photo by ClintJCL

Have a question for Damian Erskine? Send it to [email protected]. Check out Damian’s instructional books, Right Hand Drive and The Improviser’s Path.

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Leave a Reply to Andreas Kittel Cancel reply

  1. Seriously: Everyone who reads this should follow this advice and develop this skill. It will quadruple your earning power and situational appeal out there in the field. When I went pro about 20 years ago, I stepped into a 3-5 night/week situation as the bass player, and that was it. There was a percussionist who covered all the backing vocals so there was no need for me to do more. However, in time the percussionist was fired and we needed someone to step up. I’d seen that writing on the wall for a while, so what I started doing in the months leading up to the canning was sing along (to myself off-mic) with every lyric of every song all night, just to feel where the rhythms interplayed, identify tough spots and run those at home. I was doing 4 sets a night, so I got good at this pretty fast. The singer put the mic in front of me out of nowhere one night on “LA Woman” by the Doors and I nailed the lead with no rehearsal.

    Another thing I do to this day to keep developing independence is right-hand pluck my steering wheel in rhythm with basslines on the radio while singing leads. We put in a ton of windshield time here in LA, so it’s a great opportunity to practice general independence. To me, it’s a matter of “feeling” how the parts fit together. Once I have the rhythms, the melodic piece is cake.

    • Yeah, I often tell people if you can -play it- but not sing a part with it at the same time; just imagine yourself singing it as you play it. Eventually you WILL be able to play and sing at the same time and it will line up as a matter of math ur brain can understand.

  2. I got roped into singing lead on a tune in a band many years ago. The tune was Spinning Wheel by Blood Sweat and Tears. I basically had to learn it unbelievably slow with a metronome(oh no…not a metronome!!!) and then gradually speed it up. It was my first and last lead singing experience, but I managed to do it, and am better for it. Believe it or not, at least some of the old Rush tunes are not hard to sing and play bass on. I think Geddy wrote the melody and bass lines so he could sing them. I’m sure there are tunes that are very difficult, but something like Tom Sawyer is pretty easy to sing and play.

  3. If you know how to play the rhythm parts on the guitar and sing at the same time it’s just a matter of practicing by placing the bass parts behind your vocals. Start with the basic root notes on a I-IV-V blues progression until you feel comfortable with it and slowly add your runs to it on the Bass. I’m slowly learning how to sing playing Bass myself but what I’m doing is learning how to sing all the songs I do plaing rhythm guitar and learning how to sing them while playing Bass since I already know how to sing the song. I have also learned to sing new songs by learning them on Bass and singing instead of learning them on guitar first.

  4. Once you’ve reached some independence, you should start to think about phrasing. Great vocal performances often take a lot of freedom in their phrasing (but never losing the groove), while the bass has to sit right in the pocket. I’ve been trying to work on this by developing walking or dancing steps, getting the groove into the body. But any ideas are greatly appreciated.

  5. wow, this guy epitomizes bebop. I’m not a big fan of Bebop style jazz at all, but I got to give props to Raul for this.

  6. Great article and, glancing at the FB comments, everyone appears to be adding even MORE insight into something I gave up on when I first picked up the bass eight years ago. Odd, because the woman who inspired me to pick up the electric bass, Laura Love, is also known for her PRODIGIOUS vocals….yodeling included(!).

    Took time off from bass, songwriting and poetry to see which one “moved” me, and THEY ALL DO. So, I just havta go with the creative flow in a little more disciplined way, as this article proves. I wanted to be a solid “pocket” player (the whole Jaco thing just didn’t “move” me, though it is FASCINATING to study such genius!); what better way to help in that goal than to add a vocal touch?

  7. I told myself for years that I couldn’t sing and play at the same time–and then I just did it and found out that I can in fact play and sing at the same time. Like anything else, it takes practice, practice, practice, but the more I do it the easier it becomes (Damien’s tips are good ones). Being able to sing backup makes me feel much more involved in the band and has really increased my enjoyment. If you tell yourself you can’t do it, you’ll never do it. So just do it!

  8. I got talked into singing in my blues band. Cream’s Badge to be exact, was the first one. I sings others now as well. All I can say is, just keep doing it. I learned the bass line and vocal parts separately, and practiced them separately until I was completely confident. Then I worked on singing while playing. It took some time, but the main thing is to be able to not think about what you’re playing on the bass. Get that down to second nature, then you can concentrate more on the vocal delivery.